ARE FERRARI BACK ?
The German grand prix is over and now the race for formula 1 world championship hottens up – both the drivers’ championship as well as constructors’ championship. I have grown up in the sport watching the dominance of Ferrari in the Schumacher era and I cannot deny that it was not at all enjoyable for me to watch Ferrari team beaten week after week by McLaren’s and the red bulls. The last time they comfortably won the championship seems ages ago. This year held a lot of promise and when they had a one-two finish in the Bahrain grand prix- the season opener- it appeared that the good old days are back. But hopes were belied and the onslaught of red bulls buried the aspirations of Ferrari fans.
But now the giant seems to have woken up. They have woken up after a long slumber and dusted their robes and now are getting in their stride. One hopes that this is a beginning of a streak that will last long enough to win them something before the year is out.
The race itself began with a lot of drama. In formula 1 sport the beginning is nearly one third of a race and the pit stops are the rest. The race itself or the driving on the track is less of a drama. And this year with the change in regulations it was always thought that the races would be a touch boring. So far this premonition has stood the test. It seems that if you can somehow escape the mayhem caused by the start of a race and take a position on the track you will be in an unassailable position as there would be bleak chance of you getting overtaken. The administrators of the game have taken away fuel strategy from the game. So pit stops have lost their charm. Speaking about administrators, one really wonders why there is need of so many regulations to establish parity. Why the formula 1 can’t have, like any other sport just a broad set of regulations and let every team be free within those regulations. Whether they fuel during the race should be the decision of the team rather than the administrators. Similarly why put restriction on the number of hardware a team can choose or the type of tires that must be used by teams. Indeed why put ban on testing during the season. One argument that is raised is that having these restrictions gives all the teams some sort of level playing field. If such restrictions are not set, so goes the argument, then teams like Ferrari or the McLaren’s with their gargantuan budgets would be miles ahead of other teams and the teams with smaller budgets would suffer. Really? I don’t think so. If a team is sufficiently resourceful then in any case it will have better R & D and that alone would give it lead. And the last decade in the sport, from when I have started following the sport there has not been any change in the top three or at best four teams. So the gap will always be there no matter what you do. So having minimum regulations is the way forward and the sooner it is done the better. Just have those regulations which are needed from the safety point of view.
The race also put into focus the issue of team orders. Felipe Massa was comfortably ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso and the latter was not in a position to threaten him on the track however Alonso is comfortably ahead of Massa in the drivers standing and Massa was ordered to give way to alonso. While such a system as team orders are definitely against the ethos of the game but it will be very difficult for the FIA to stop these things. So the sport will have to live with this. One can only hope now that it was not a one off show by Ferrari and now they are back as a potent force.
